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Published: June 26th 2010
Berlin was bliss.
We stayed with Dan's friend Matt from auckland and his girlfriend Becky. They were the best hosts, we loved being in somebody's home again after all the hostelling. Being able to wash your clothes when you want, not having to learn everything about your surroundings and eat home cooked meals is something we didnt realise we were missing so much! Becky is an absolutely awesome cook! Matt and Becky are two of the most intelligent people I've ever met and that made for some great late night conversations and debates over yahtzee.
We went out to dinner the first night to a local restuarant and had the menu translated for us by matt and becky (another luxury!), nice german food and a good chance to get to know our hosts. Dan had come down with a cold by the time we arrived in berlin after our ten hour train trip, probably because of the train trip actually the temperature was fluctuating from about 22 to 38 within ten minutes as the air conditioning cut in and out and old german men had arguments over whether or not to open the windows - it got quite heated (excuse the pun). So our first day we decided to do nothing at all and re-charge the batteries a little bit.
The next day Dan was still feeling under the weather so I caught the train into the city centre to see some of the sights. Took in the Brandenburg, reichstagg etc but I was really keen to see the Jewish holocaust memorial. You may have seen pictures of this, its a bit over 2000 large concrete blocks that are sticking out of the ground at different heights it covers a really large area and you can walk into it from any side and leave anywhere you want. Its apparently the only memorial that doesnt use symbolism so it is really left up to you to decide what it means to you. When you get to the centre the blocks are well over head height and you cant see the exits so its a really daunting feeling, great to wander around and contemplate its significance. What I really enjoyed about it was the information centre/museum underneath that narrates the rise of the Nazis but in partiicular the process by which Jews were seen as enemies of the state, to legally being controlled all the way through to the final solution. Its split into rooms and the most effective, surreal and emotional room just had the names of victims projected onto the wall one at a time, a short narrration is read out in german then english for about 20 seconds about who the person was and what happened to them. I stayed in there for about 6 peoples names to be read out, but once you leave there is a little sign that says to listen to all the recordings back to back it would take 6 years and 7 months to hear them all!!! Given that the museum opened in 2005 they havent even made it through one cycle yet!
I might diverge here a little bit (if you dont want to read a mini-rant skip this paragraph) - The most shocking photos on display I found were those documenting the public humiliations, that occurred well before the 'final solution'. I saw one particular photo of a Jewish man being marched down the street with a placard around his neck reading "I'm a race defiler" wandering just behind him was his girlfriend whose placard read "I'm a German girl and I have allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew". Looking at the faces of the thousands of people watching this public display was disgusting - some people were smiling, yelling abuse, laughing, pointing. Now its not fair to assume that every single person in the photograph was Ok with the morality of what they were seeing but I think its safe to say that the majority enjoyed it. I was standing next to two elderly American ladies and one had said "its shocking, how could they be so stupid?" This got me thinking, none of the people in these photos are openly shocked at all, Its completely acceptable behviour, but the way this women chastized the crowd made me think how ignorant we are to believe that this kind of public sentiment only existed in Germany in WWII. I know plenty of people who openly believe that Aboriginal Australians are inferior to those Australians of European descent, Their stupidity is always highlighted by the fact that they have no problems being friends with an Aboriginal person. I remember studying Australian history in Uni and learning about when Australia was taking refugees from eastern european camps post-WWII to help populate Australia yet the immigration officials plundering these camps would not acccept people of dark skin or 'jewish' appearance - the examples could go on and on. The holocaust is one of the darkest moments in our collective history, but its shocking not only because of the public sentiment, but the way in which it was embodied completely in the aims and legislation of the state and pursued to the tragic end of the final solution. The cliche here is obviously that 'history favours the victor' but to assume that these sentiments ended with the Nazis is absurd. The way in which these crimes are sensitively and comprehensively exhibited by the German people is brilliant and a testament to their nation, but it should be used to teach us about the folly of racist ideology and the danger of that being embodied in legislation, it still holds relevance in todays society we're not immune from it - its not a museum of how 'stupid' people 'used' to be.
Rant over.
To continue, After the memorial I wandered the streets a bit, the city has a really nice pace about it, seemed really slow and orderly, my kind of place. After my wanderings I ended up at randomly at checkpoint charlie, Ate a big mac under the american flag and heard this yank say to his friend "see, how awesome is this? how can everybody not love us?!" Funniest part of the day.
Its hard to remember when everything happened in Berlin but one of the nights Matt and Becky took us to the first ever beer garden in Berlin. Tried some local beers and ate a pickle as big as my hand - awesome at the start but got pretty sickening at the end. The place was nothing like I expected and really displayed the difference of drinking cultures in Europe compared to home. I know sometimes you hear pubs described as 'buzzing' or 'jumping' but this place as literally 'humming' probably at least a thousand people drinking beers at large tables and you could still talk at a normal level and hear everything perfectly, no shouting, drunken antics or anything just a low hum that was never exceeded, an unexpected experience and a great night.
The rest of Berlin was a bit of a blur but involved watching as many world cup games as we could, hanging out with our hosts and eating matt and beckys delicious cooking (becky's gado gado has been the best meal of the trip so far- fresh salad, vegies and tofu smothered in satay penut sauce!). They gave us a really unique insight into the city, their unit is in 'east' berlin about a hundred metres from where the wall was. The history is litterally written all over the buildings and streets sometimes in a really subtle way. Becky pointed out this little bronze plaques on the street that would mark where someone was arrested or taken from by either Germans or Soviets, what their 'crime' was and how they had died. Some of the older buildings were riddled with bullet holes and in the parts that marked the former death strip or 'no mans land' between east and west the buildings would literally stop with a bare wall- The wall itself was not much of an obstacle but the hundred metres of bare raked sand inbetween that was floodlit and guarded was the hard bit to cross. M and B told us some great stories they learned from students that they'd taught about their expereinces of east and west and the changes they'd seen in their lifetimes. My favourites would have to be when Matt explained how all the Stazi (secret police) files were now opened to the public and estimates suggest that 1 in 6 people from east Berlin were Stazi informants. This is really bizarre and makes you realise how recent all these issues are. Matt was saying that heaps of Germans were accessing their files and realising that the nice little old lady from floor 2 unit 7 or whatever was actually relaying your conversations with your wife to the secret police! These people would most of the time still be living in the same buildings now days.
A great city and a great way too see it. Thanks heaps Matt and Becky for your hospitality and tour of the former wall!
Stepping over the threshold of their home and back into backpacking mode startled us a bit, especially realising after a blissful 5 days relaxing we were now heading east to see what Russia was all about!
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Becky
non-member comment
aw shucks!
Ben, you're too kind... but I'm glad you had such a good time here! And we loved having you, you were awesome guests. Can't wait to read the next installments, take care x x